Portsmouth Herald
Published: 07-14-95
CANDIDATE HITS FAMILY BREAKDOWN
REPUBLICAN KEYES CALL IT ROOT OF NATION'S TROUBLES     
Byline: Steve Haberman


   ROCHESTER - Former Reagan administration official and current Republican
presidential hopeful Alan Keyes believes the other candidates in the race are
looking at theproblems facing this country in entirely the wrong way.
   While most politicians are ``tinkering'' with the budget, trying to
address crime, violence, and the breakdown of the educational system, 
they should be addressing the root cause of all these problems _ the 
breakdown of the marriage-based, two-parent family, Keyes said.
   ``We're not dealing with a whole lot of problems,'' Keyes said during a
campaign stop at the Rochester Senior Center Wednesday evening, before 
the Strafford County Christian Coalition.
   ``We're dealing with the effect of one basic problem: we have backed away
from oursupport for the fundamental unit of society, the two-parent family.''
   That is the result of the way Americans have come to define the freedom
that is inherent in our society and laid out specifically in the 
Declaration of Independence, framed by Thomas Jefferson, Keyes believes. 
While the new definition of freedom has come to mean an egocentric vision 
of being able to do just what we want, Jefferson's vision guarantees
freedom as an inalienable right granted by a higher authority.
   ``The worth of a human being does not depend on our choice,'' Keyes said.
``It was determined by almighty God, and we have nothing to say about it.''
   The egocentric view of freedom undermines the family structure, Keyes
contends, ``because families involve sometimes putting aside what you 
want so that others can have and grow _ doing things, for example, for 
the sake of the children.''
   The single issue in current society that epitomizes this egocentric view
of freedom and thereby most undermines the family is abortion, said the 
former Reagan official.
   ``What we are saying is that if it serves your plans for your life, it's
OK, but if not, you can destroy it,'' Keyes said.
   He criticized leaders of his party for choosing not to address the
abortion issue.  ``I don't see how Republican leaders can say we don't 
have to talk about this,'' Keyes said. ``We won't solve any of the 
important issues of our lives if we don't.''
   Keyes, who sees the issue as a simple matter of right and wrong, said that
addressing the problems in today's society in that context would solve a 
lot of them.
   ``A lot of the problems we see would dissolve with a clear sense of moral
clarity,'' he said.
   The former president of Citizens Against Government Waste told the 60
people who attended the rally that he could not guarantee them a victory 
in the February primary. ``That's in God's hands,'' he said.
   What he did promise is that if they joined his campaign effort, they would
be part of the effort to bring this point of view into the American 
political arena.  ``Whether we win or lose, America will be the 
winner,'' he said.